What this is about: Watching all of the anime shows so you don’t have to! For more information about me and my reviews, click here for details on what I am reviewing.

Series Premise: Nichijou, or “My Ordinary Life”, is a weekly anime television series that started in April 2011, based on a comedy manga series by Keiichi Arawi. The story follows the everyday life and adventures of a few first-year high school students and the people around them, including an underage professor and her robotic maid, a goat-riding student and his butler, and other quirky characters.

Click on the thumbnails below to view the picture in full size in a new window:

Episode Summary: Mio is furious at her older sister for messing with her prized snacks. The girls at a restaurant, where Mio ends up waiting for her food. Yuuko battles night-time mosquitos. The Professor sneaks some snacks, much to Nano’s annoyance. Mio gets a temp job wearing a strange oversized mascot head.

My Impressions: Nichijou’s track record as a hit-and-miss comedy continues to be…well…hit and miss.

Some of the short skits work, and I was grinning at the very sight of Mio’s older sister sitting calmly in feudal Japanese armor…and Mio simply walking into the room as if nothing is amiss. But other times, it’s just “meh”. At least there were no terrible incredibly-drawn-out-and-dragged-to-death skits that made up the last episode, I guess.

As with all hit-and-miss skit-based comedy shows, it’s always a judgment call as to whether it’s worth suffering through the tedious bits to get to the good ones. And my only real answer to that is: I’m still watching after nine episodes. But I think I would prefer it if someone with waaaaay too much time on their hands would go through and condense it down to, say, ten abbreviated episodes containing “The Best of Nichijou”. Same me (and others) the time and trouble.

The other thing that I’ve noticed with Nichijou is that the alternate title, “My Ordinary Life”, should really be “My Ordinary Japanese Life” (or, does that go without saying?) The reason is that so much of the situational humor and settings depend on a fairly decent understanding of modern Japanese culture — not just in this episode but all the episodes. Prizes on popsicle sticks? Daruma dolls? Daifuku? Shoji? There’s a huge chunk of Nichijou’s humor that would not translate well into a non-Japanese setting. Not that there is anything specifically wrong with that per se, other than it does make it less accessible to someone who is not already steeped in Japanese society.

“Filled to the brim with hi-jinks, gags and overreactions, this week’s Nichijou surely must have something for everyone, right? I’m personally a big fan or Mio and her relatively normal reactions to the craziness around her. Seeing her get belly punched by grade schoolers is a can’t lose. Poor Mio!” – Moe Monster

“Well we got another semi slow paced episode with a few random moments here and there that save it from being entirely boring. That said, there were a few great scenes for me. I did enjoy watching Yoshino play a few pranks on Mio, just reminded me of myself too much when I messed around with my own brother and sister. I think I had the most fun seeing a somewhat new character on the screen for once, even seeing the teacher at the start was a refreshing change.” – Metanorn

“Even though the short jokes are lower in number this episode than previous ones they’re still quite powerful stuff. ” – Polychromium